Representative Governance at Maynooth. Please read and sign.

https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/defend-democracy-at-maynooth-university

I’m sometimes told that Irish universities are much better off than universities in the UK and the States. Perhaps. But it’s because we’re better off that we need to be vigilant. It’s time to struggle when you’re down on one knee – not when you’re are splayed face down on the canvas.

Here’s some more context for this petition. The Irish government recently passed legislation reducing the size of Governing Authorities to nineteen while insisting that on ten external members on each authority. This was obviously designed to ensure that universities can be outvoted in their own houses. Although we like to think that Ireland is immune from the sort of populist anti-intellectualism that has triumphed in places like the UK, Florida, and Hungary, we’re clearly not.

As a result of the new legislated arithmetic, there are only actually only five members of any Governing Authority up for grabs from an internal point of view, once certain necessary individuals are included. Universities were told they are free to decide whether these five members are to be elected or selected.

Maynooth’s Governing Authority opted for “selection” of all five members. They made this decision without consultation and it was presented as a fait accompli. They have since met with the opposition of every union on campus, Academic Council, and… everyone I know. We have been told that a selection process which involves the expensive use of external consultants is needed to ensure that core competencies are covered. We have been told that selection can be “fairer” to people who want to serve but don’t want to run for election. It is true that all elections “discriminate” against people who are too unpopular to get elected…

Since the legislation already reduces the proportion of people on Governing Authorities who are actually engaged in teaching and research, the Annual Delegate Conference of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) passed a resolution urging members to preserve the elective principle in universities as far as possible.

There is still time for negotiation. We want all five available slots to be filled by election. We have a mandate.

Interesting story. At our emergency general meeting, a member of staff who had recently arrived from the States spoke up. He noted that one of the chief reasons why he moved to Ireland was because of the perception that Ireland might have resisted the drive to managerial autocratic governance that has drained the collegial life out of so many institutions across the Anglophone world. Ireland is in an extraordinary position to provide a “beacon” (horrible bit of jargon, I know) of elective collegial governance that can attract some of the finest minds in the world today.

Retaining democracy can make us highly competitive, in other words. Why oh why would a Governing Authority want to resist this opportunity? Why would they want to make the university so much less attractive in an international market? We’re promoting this petition and this campaign because we care about our university and we are strategically ambitious on its behalf.

The morale of a university suffers when a fissure opens up between those who teach and research and those who “manage”. When I joined the university we never spoke of “management” at all. There were merely senior colleagues who had taken on administrative responsibilities. If we can retain some rumour of a culture in which some of those who govern are drawn from and return to the academic community then morale is salvageable. If we know that some of those at the highest level of decision making are there not because a committee has decided that they are worthy behind closed doors but because their colleagues, who have worked alongside them for many years, have given them a mandate – then we are better placed to attract those from across the world who are still looking for somewhere where the idea of the university might flourish.

We’re at a crossroads here. Do please sign this petition. Do please share.